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First Thoughts
Two important things happen at the end. How did you feel when the narrator’s father dismissed her as “only a girl”? How did you feel about the girl’s reaction?
With that phrase it was understood that she is not important and the saddest thing is that she was beginning to believe it.
Shaping Interpretations
One of the conflicts in the story takes place between the narrator and her mother. What does the mother expect of her daughter? Why does the narrator feel that her mother is her “enemy”?
She wants her to learn the household chores because she knows that is her duty.
Because she thought that her mom was plotting to get her to stay in the house more, although she hated it and kept her from working for her father.
Why does the girl find her father’s work more interesting than her mother’s?
She thinks that her father’s work is given more importance than cooking or cleaning that is what her mother does.
After the girl watches her father shoot Mack, how does her attitude toward men’s work change?
Even though that shocking scene, she didn’t feel any fear, so we think that moment made her a little bit more mature.
What other changes does the girl experience after the shooting incident? Try listing them on a chart.
She started to worry more about her appearance, to make her part of the room fancy, her dreams were now about someone saving her and not her being the hero, basically she was starting to understand her “position” in society.
Another conflict in this story takes place in the girl’s mind. What do you think the girl decided when she says, “I was on Flora's side”?
She didn’t want Flora to have the same fate as Mack, so she decided to help her to escape.
Connecting with the Text
What generalizations about boys and girls could you make based on this story? What generalizations could you make based on the poll on page 58?
That, at that time, boys were considered better than girls. Both genders knew that being a man was a little bit more important than being a woman.
In your own experience, are the roles of girls and boys (or men and women) as distinct as they are in the rural Canada of this story?
Nowadays men still have the same rights but women have gained more than they had, so the roles are a little different but in some places women still don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Challenging the Text
Do you like the way Alice Munro ended the story, or do you wish something else had happened? Explain.
We didn’t like that much the ending because the narrator at the end “accepted her position” but we also know that at that time and at that age it would have been difficult for her to contradict what her father and the society established.
By Andrea Parra and
Laura Rodriguez,
Step 11 Blue
